Tag: Rapsody

Kelly Clarkson and Rita Ora are among the musicians who will pledge their support to the Time’s Up movement by wearing white roses to the upcoming Grammy Awards.The planned demonstration, which comes just weeks after the majority of stars wore black to…

Kelly Clarkson and Rita Ora are among the musicians who will pledge their support to the Time’s Up movement by wearing white roses to the upcoming Grammy Awards.

The planned demonstration, which comes just weeks after the majority of stars wore black to the Golden Globe Awards to support the movement, formed in response to the sexual assault and harassment scandal sweeping Hollywood, has been planned by Meg Harkins, senior vice president at Roc Nation, and Karen Rait, rhythmic promotion at Interscope Geffen A&M Records.

The duo realised that no plans had been put in place for stars attending the biggest night in the music industry to show their support for those who have come forward with tales of sexual assault. Harkins and Rait then assembled around a dozen other women in music, dubbing themselves Voices in Entertainment, for a dinner in New York on Monday (22Jan18) to come up with a plan for Sunday night’s ceremony.

After much discussion, they came up with the symbol of a white rose – which references the white colour the suffragettes wore during their protests and also the hue Hillary Clinton donned at Donald Trump’s presidential inauguration.

Since they set their plan, the Voices in Entertainment have been reaching out to their contacts to encourage them to wear white roses to the event, with Kelly, Rita, Halsey, Cyndi Lauper, Dua Lipa, Rapsody and Tom Morello among those who have agreed to accessorise their ensemble with the flower on Sunday night.

Harkins and Rait have also been in touch with the Time’s Up movement headquarters to discuss their plans for the Grammys, and to ensure that they can coordinate their messages.

“It is an important conversation politically in our country and it’s also a conversation we need to have internally with our artists and our companies,” Harkins told Billboard.com. “We need to say if anyone is feeling like they’re being discriminated against and they don’t feel safe in their workplace, they have people who will support them.”

“Music artists have a lot of impact… So it’s only fitting that that music’s biggest night show the support for equality and safety in the workplace and that people need to be cognisant of their fellow employees,” Rait added.